Chapter Twenty-One

**FOUR MONTHS AGO**

William came to the warehouse to see Thomas, and to see if he had taken care of the CSI yet, but when he got there, he saw her unconscious and tied to the chair. He went to their small office that they kept on-site; Thomas was working away on his laptop when he saw his brother walk in.

“I thought I told you to get rid of her?!” William was pissed, he\d told Thomas to get rid of the CSI because they didn’t need that kind of attention.

“It’s my choice William, not yours’, if I want to keep her I will!” Thomas was younger and in William’s opinion had always been impetuous and stupid.

“If you keep this up Thomas you will be caught, and I won’t stick around for that!” He didn’t want to leave his brother, but he didn’t want to be caught either.

“Stop treating me like a child Will! If you don’t want any part of this then GO!” Thomas didn’t want to do this without William, but if he was going to treat him like a kid then he could leave. William walked out without saying another word, if he had realized that meant this would be the last time, they spoke he wouldn’t have been so harsh. Thomas watched his brother leave, not long after he could hear Samantha start to come around. He made his way back to the room where she was being held and as soon as he walked in her eyes locked with his. Sam was being careful not to move her wrists too much, she knew she was slowly bleeding out. Thomas went over to her and removed the gag, “I see you’re awake again, ready for round 2?” He laughed as he said it, but Sam could see a wave of anger behind his eyes. “I spoke with your father… I think I riled him up pretty good.” It was Sam’s turn to show anger, it flashed across her face.

“You cross Matthew and you cross the whole team, Thomas!” She yelled at him, but he merely laughed it off, Sam continued, “You kill me, they will kill you… Do you really think they won’t be able to find me?” Sam sounded so confident, and it annoyed him slightly.

“As you said, detective… they have to find you first, and well… it’s been over 6 hours already unless they get a miracle…” He trailed off and laughed, she didn’t want to admit it, but Thomas was right. If they hadn’t found, her by now then by the time they did it would be too late.

Thomas was tired of talking he grabbed one of the knives from the worktable and approached Sam, unfortunately, she didn’t have anywhere to go. He drew the blade across her left cheek, causing Sam to cry out in pain. Thomas reveled in the pain he was causing; he took the blade and drew it across her left forearm and Sam cried out again. It went on like this for another 5 minutes until Thomas heard some noise coming from outside the room. He pulled out his phone and opened his security app, he went through all the cameras and saw a police force mobilized outside. Some of them made their way to the small room with Detectives Matthew Riley and Chris Nolan in the lead. Thomas cursed and threw the phone across the small room; he grabbed the roll of tape and ripped a few pieces off. He placed them over Sam’s mouth as she tried to cry out, then snipped the barbed wired binding Sam’s wrists and ankles. He spun her away from him and pulled her arms behind her back before binding them with rope. He then pulled a gun out, pointed it at her back, and waited.

From what the team could learn it was a mostly abandoned district that didn’t have anything within miles of it that was occupied. They mobilized the team as well as a police force with Chris’ help and made their way there, hoping that Sam was still alive. They arrived shortly after 6 pm and did a thermal sweep of the area, where they located two body signatures below one of the buildings. With a plan in place, Matt and Chris lead a small team into the building while the rest of them covered the outside exists to prevent any escape attempts. Nearby William was the whole scene unfold, he had decided to come back and help his brother, he couldn’t just leave him alone like that. But by the time he got there the police had the place surrounded and there was nothing he could do but wait.

Matthew and Chris made their way down to the basement of the building, one of the first rooms they encountered was the small office that Thomas and William used but it was empty. They were trying to be quiet but even with the noise from the pipes, it was hard to cover up the sound of a group of officers. A little further down there was a large steel door that was slightly ajar, Chris was the first to approach it. He opened the door and saw Thomas at the same time he heard him speak, “That’s close enough detective! You or anyone else comes in here and I shoot her!” Thomas pulled the gun out from behind Sam to show him before pushing it into her back again. Sam cried out but he just pushed it into her back harder, Matthew approached the door but didn’t go in.